Background:

UN Women (UNW), grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. 

UN Women’s triple mandate, along with its global network and deep policy and programming expertise, continues to endow the Entity with a unique capacity to: (i) support Member States to strengthen global norms and standards for gender equality and women’s empowerment, and mainstream gender perspectives in other thematic areas; (ii) promote coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment; and (iii) undertake operational activities to support Member States, upon their request, in translating global norms and standards into legislation, policies and strategies at country level. 

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). In line with the national priorities, the work of UN Women for the period 2023-2025 is aligned with three of the Palestine United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s (UNSDCF) outcomes:

•      Palestinians have greater access to economic opportunities that are inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, including decent employment and livelihoods opportunities in an empowered private sector.

•      Palestinians, including the most vulnerable, have equal access to sustainable, inclusive, gender responsive and quality social services, social protection, and affordable utilities.

•      Palestinian governance institutions, processes, and mechanisms at all levels are more democratic, rights-based, inclusive, and accountable.

Its three-year Strategic Note supports the efforts to achieve measurable results in country in terms of four UN Women global Strategic Plan impacts (2022-2025): (SP Impact 1). Governance and participation in public life; (SP Impact 2). Women’s Economic Empowerment; (SP Impact 3). Ending Violence Against Women and Girls; SP Impact 4. Women peace and security, Humanitarian & Disaster Risk Reduction. 

Despite the unprecedented suffering in Gaza, the ceasefire offers a promise to scale up humanitarian assistance and transition to early recovery and reconstruction, including scaled-up programming on women’s livelihoods and economic participation through early recovery and development. UN Women Palestine is preparing to significantly expand its WEE interventions to respond to this need in line with UNCT and UN Women programming for the humanitarian response and early recovery in Gaza. Interventions will be based on the draft Palestine Chapter of the UN Women Arab States Flagship Initiative, Surging Women’s Employment by 5 Percentage Points before 2030 exploring context specific interventions to increase women’s employment in Palestine at scale through participation in fields including STEM, digital economy, caregiving, and the green economy including climate smart agriculture and the circular economy. Interventions will also align with UN Women's guidance note on Addressing Care in Conflict and Crisis Settings.1 Together, this thinking will underpin the strategic direction for advancing women’s economic empowerment in humanitarian, early recovery and development contexts in Palestine, and more broadly, support the UNCT in ensuring a gender equitable and inclusive reconstruction process. 

In conflict and crisis settings such as Gaza, the expansion of WEE interventions can’t be viewed siloed from the care economy and how it affects different population groups. Large-scale displacement, destruction of infrastructure, loss of public services, and heightened care needs related to injury, disability, trauma, and household survival have significantly altered how care is provided, by whom, and under what conditions. Women and girls, in particular, face a sharp increase in unpaid care responsibilities, alongside constrained access to income-generating opportunities, which in turn reinforces gender inequalities and limits women’s participation in recovery processes. At the same time, care provision in crisis contexts can play a transformative role in early recovery and reconstruction when adequately recognized, supported, and invested in. Care services and care-related employment can enable women’s economic participation, support social cohesion, and contribute to community resilience, while alleviating unpaid care burdens that constrain access to livelihoods, skills development, and public life. Importantly. Quality and affordable care services ensure those who require care (especially children, persons with disabilities, pregnant or lactating women, and older persons) can participate fully in public life with safety, dignity and full capabilities.

In response to this, UN Women Palestine seeks to undertake a focused, evidence-based assessment of the care economy in Gaza, grounded in UN Women’s Guidance Note on Addressing Care in Times of Conflict and Crisis (2025), and linking to the wider WEE context. The assessment will generate context-specific analysis on the current dynamics on the social organization of care work (paid and unpaid) in Gaza, current care needs and gaps vis-a-vis care services and infrastructure, opportunities for meeting care needs and creating decent employment opportunities for women in the care sector (including community based and larger-scale/institutional needs in the short/medium/long-term), and entry points for strengthening the enabling environment (i.e. via care-related labour market and leave policies, normative frameworks and standards, humanitarian response mechanisms etc). This assessment will inform the design of care-responsive early recovery and women’s economic empowerment interventions that are feasible, inclusive, and aligned with humanitarian and development priorities within UN Women and the wider response.

The purpose of this assignment is to support UN Women Palestine in undertaking a context-specific assessment and operationalization of the care economy in Gaza, in line with UN Women’s Guidance Note on Addressing Care in Times of Conflict and Crisis (2025), and to inform early recovery, reconstruction, and women’s economic empowerment programming. 

The national consultant will play a critical in-country role in supporting the international consultant by providing contextual analysis, primary data collection, and sustained engagement with local stakeholders, including women-led organisations, care providers, community structures, local authorities, and humanitarian actors operating in Gaza. The assignment places particular emphasis on documenting how care systems, care needs, and care roles have shifted as a result of conflict and crisis, and how care-responsive interventions can support recovery, resilience, and women’s economic participation.

Working under the technical leadership of the International Consultant for care economy and women’s employment in crisis settings and early recovery, the national consultant will contribute to evidence-based mapping and analysis of the care economy in Gaza, drawing on UN Women programming (including She Rebuilds Gaza), the UNCT humanitarian and early recovery response, and relevant national and local data sources. The consultant will support the generation of timely, sex- and age-disaggregated data and qualitative evidence on paid and unpaid care work, care providers, and care recipients, ensuring that findings reflect lived realities and localized care practices.

A core component of the assignment is the operationalization of UN Women’s Guidance Note on Addressing Care in Times of Conflict and Crisis (2025) in the Gaza context. The national consultant’s role will focus on strengthening evidence and data generation on gender, care, and women’s economic participation in humanitarian and early recovery settings, including through rapid assessments, stakeholder consultations, and documentation of emerging care models. This work contributes to UN Women’s broader institutional commitment to advancing gender data in crisis contexts and ensuring that programming in Gaza is informed by actionable, context-specific evidence on care burdens, care provision, and recovery needs.

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UN Women Palestine Deputy Country Representative in close technical collaboration with the international consultant on the care economy and women’s employment in crisis settings and early recovery.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of work:

The national consultant will support the international consultant in the design, implementation, and validation of the care economy assessment and related programmatic guidance. This includes assisting with field-level consultations, facilitating access to local networks, supporting the review of preliminary findings, and providing inputs to the contextual grounding of recommendations. The national consultant will also provide technical support and stakeholder coordination assistance to UN Women Palestine. The national consultant will work closely with the international consultant through regular coordination meetings and validation processes, as detailed in the joint inception report. 

         1. Support the preparation of the Inception report

In coordination with the international consultant i) contribute to the preparation of the joint inception report setting out the proposed methodology, data sources, and evidence generation approach to the care economy assessment in Gaza, and  ii) Prepare the national consultant’s individual action plan (timeline/work schedule, local access strategy, risk mitigation, stakeholder list), aiming to distinguish roles and responsibilities between the national and international consultants. 

         2. Contextual data collection, mapping, and analysis on the care economy in Gaza

Under the technical guidance of the international consultant and UN Women Palestine, support the implementation of a rapid, evidence-based mapping and analysis on care-responsive action in Gaza, aligned with Table 2 of UN Women’s Guidance Note on Addressing Care in Times of Conflict and Crisis (2025). The national consultant will be primarily responsible for supporting context-specific data collection and analysis[1], including:

• Assisting in Mapping local stakeholders, service providers, community structures, and partners related to the care economy in Gaza, focusing on establishing/strengthening relationships and partnerships with government institutions, civil society partners, academics, experts, UN agencies, women-led organisations, CSOs. 
• Supporting the Collection of qualitative and quantitative evidence on paid and unpaid care work, including who is providing care, under what conditions, and how care roles have shifted due to conflict and crisis.
• Documenting differentiated care needs among key population groups (including children, older persons, persons with disabilities, injured persons, and female-headed households) across different areas of Gaza.
• Providing inputs to analysis of how care provision enables or constrains women’s participation in early recovery and livelihoods interventions (e.g. cash-for-work, community kitchens, community clay ovens, debris removal).
• Contributing localized evidence on linkages between the care economy and women’s employment in selected early recovery–relevant sectors (e.g. care services, agriculture, digital and informal livelihoods), as inputs to the broader assessment led by the international consultant.
• Supporting the Identification of context-specific care gaps, emerging care models (including community-based and solidarity-driven arrangements), risks, and constraints, and documenting who is filling these gaps and how.
• Supporting the validation of findings through field-level consultations and stakeholder engagement and will contribute contextual inputs to the formulation of policy and programmatic recommendations developed by the international consultant.
• Ensuring that proposed recommendations are grounded in local realities and operationally feasible in the Gaza context, with linkages to the wider WEE agenda including future UN Women programming including through joint programmes.

        3.  Evidence integration, programming and operational support 

• Contributing contextual inputs to programme concepts, joint UN programmes, proposals, programme briefs, technical notes, and internal analytical products related to care-responsive early recovery and women’s economic empowerment;
• Supporting the international consultant and UN Women programme teams in translating assessment findings into practical, context-sensitive programming considerations, where relevant.

         4.  Other duties/Knowledge building and documentation

• Support documentation, and dissemination of evidence related to the care economy in Gaza, including contributions to knowledge products, briefing materials, and internal learning outputs developed under the leadership of the international consultant and UN Women.
• The incumbent may perform other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy, based in Gaza, with possible field trips within Gaza.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

• Strong contextual knowledge of Gaza and the broader Palestinian socio-economic and humanitarian landscape is required.
• Strong experience of gender and women’s economic empowerment, in crisis and early recovery settings.
• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation skills. 
• Strong analytical skills. 
• Excellent and verbal written communication skills. 
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making. 
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required. 
• Strong networking skills. 
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities, for programming and resource mobilization.
• Strong knowledge of Palestine and the region.

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, gender, international development, or other social science fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of progressively responsible professional experience in gender equality, care economy, social protection, labour market analysis, or women’s economic empowerment, preferably in humanitarian, fragile, or crisis-affected contexts is required.
• Proven experience in primary data collection and field-based research in complex environments, including stakeholder interviews, focus group discussions, community consultations, and coordination with local partners is required.
• Experience in conducting applied research, rapid assessments, or analytical studies related to care work, unpaid care burdens, gendered labour dynamics, or social services in emergency or early recovery settings is highly desirable.
• Experience analyzing the impact of conflict or crisis on social services, care systems, or labour markets, and translating findings into practical programmatic recommendations is required.
• Experience working with women-led organizations, community-based structures, civil society actors, or local authorities in Gaza or similar humanitarian contexts is desirable.
• Familiarity with humanitarian programming, early recovery frameworks, and/or UN coordination mechanisms is required.
• Experience integrating gender data and evidence into programme design, policy dialogue, or proposal development is desirable.
• Previous experience working with the United Nations, international organisations, or humanitarian agencies is desirable.
• A sample of written work, preferably an analytical report relevant to the assignment to be attached as part of the application.

Languages:

Fluency in English and Arabic is required.
 

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.